A top court ruled Thursday that South Koreans can now legally reject their mandatory military service on conscientious or religious grounds without punishment. The decision by South Korea's Supreme Court is expected to affect the cases of more than 900 conscientious objectors on trial, as hundreds of men, mostly Jehovah's Witnesses, are imprisoned every year for refusing to serve. One of the ways South Korea copes with potential aggression from its neighbor and traditional enemy of North Korea is to force all able-bodied men to serve two years in the military. But under President Moon Jae-in, who was elected last...

By now, every political commentator has offered a suggestion for how Donald Trump ended up as president of these United States. Few have missed their targets as badly as Damon Linker's most recent offering, which suggests that we could have avoided President Trump if only the government had remained committed, for the past 40-plus years, to a policy that forced young Americans to die in foreign wars. Linker, a senior correspondent at The Week, suggests that historians will ultimately trace the rise of Trump to the decline in social cohesion that began, yes, with the abolition of military conscription in...

Military investigators in South Korea identified a group of 12 students in a Seoul university, who made a coordinated effort to gain weight to become ineligible for mandatory military service. Those involved could face jail time. South Korea has some of the strictest rules about mandatory service. Every young man has to complete his service, with exemptions given to very few, such as people with debilitating conditions or Olympic medalists. For example, being a K-pop idol would not spare one from undertaking military service, so fans of bands such as BTS compile lengthy charts to track when this or that...

By now, most people in South Korea know the national team’s victory over Japan in the Asian Games football tournament secured not just the gold medal, but also an exemption from military service for Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min. The win also brought global attention to a simmering social and political issue in South Korea. All male South Koreans aged 18 to 35 undertake mandatory military service. Most start in their early 20s, disrupting tertiary education or postponing career entry. For most, mandatory military service includes five weeks of boot camp, and around two years of mind-numbing battalion boredom, indoctrination, and...

Tottenham fans are celebrating after their star forward Son Heung-min secured an exemption from military service by winning gold at the Asian Games - but we doubt their celebrations matched the joyous scenes among the South Korea players and staff. South Korea beat Japan 2-1 in an extra time thriller this Saturday meaning the entire team will not need to spend nearly two years in the military. After a goalless 90 minutes, three goals were scored in extra time. South Korea opened the scoring, before netting another goal. But Japan closed the gap with one of their own. South Korea...

The South Korean military will gradually shorten the length of its mandatory military service, local media reported on Friday (Jul 27). Under the Defense Reform 2.0 plans, submitted to President Moon Jae-in on Friday, the service period for army and marine corps draftees will be reduced from 21 months to 18 months by 2022, the Yonhap news agency reported. Those serving in the navy will have their service reduced from 23 months to 20 months, while those in the air force will have their term shortened from 24 months to 22 months. The military also plans to slash the total...

What Six Years of ‘Reset’ with Russia Have Wrought by CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER August 27, 2015 On September 5, 2014, Russian agents crossed into Estonia and kidnapped an Estonian security official. Last week, after a closed trial, Russia sentenced him to 15 years. The reaction? The State Department issued a statement. The NATO secretary-general issued a tweet. Neither did anything. The European Union (reports the Wall Street Journal) said it was too early to discuss any possible action. The timing of this brazen violation of NATO territory — two days after President Obama visited Estonia to symbolize America’s commitment to its...

LEICESTER, United Kingdom - Baptizing babies is a violation of their human rights, according to the former president of Ireland. Mary McAleese, who served in the largely ceremonial role of president from 1997-2011, also said she would not attend the Aug. 22-26 World Meeting of Families taking place in Dublin. She told the Irish Times the event, which Pope Francis will attend Aug. 25-26, will only serve as a “political rally” for the “reinforcement of orthodoxy.” McAleese told the newspaper that by baptizing children before they have reached the age of reason, the Church is creating “infant conscripts who are...

Memorial Day in Norwich has come and gone. For the record it was wonderful to see retired Army Colonel James Cushman, on his own two feet, as the Master of Ceremonies. The crowd was better than average in numbers and the Norwich High School madrigal choir could not have been better at singing the National Anthem. As the 2018 speaker, Dr. Edward J. Erickson – a multi-war Army veteran – gave his remarks, one couldn’t help but notice the faces in the park were all very familiar. That is because it is the same people in attendance, year after year....

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., accidentally sent out a tweet Wednesday that appeared to be a draft. The tweet included a parenthetical reminder to “tag officials and tax march,” before sending the tweet where she said she would be participating in a march to call attention to the “GOP tax scam.”

The Pentagon recommended that women be required to register for the draft to boost military enrollment, according to a Defense Department report addressed to Congress. The report, obtained by the Washington Times, said the Selective Service System would increase enrollment by 11 million people if the U.S. required women to sign up for the draft.

The Pentagon says the country should stick with mandatory registration for a military draft, and it advocates a requirement for women to sign up for the first time in the nation’s history. The recommendations are contained in a Defense Department report to Congress that serves as a starting point for a commission examining military, national and public service. Congress ordered the Pentagon report, and the office of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness completed it in the early months of the Trump administration. Currently, only male citizens and residents age 18-25 are required to register, for a pace...

Sen. John McCain took some veiled shots at President Trump over the weekend — slamming high income draft dodgers like himself for using their wealth to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. “One aspect of the conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” the Arizona lawmaker told C-SPAN3 in an interview that aired Sunday. “That is wrong. That is wrong,” he said. “If we’re going to ask every American to...

WARNING: There Is Going to be an Attempted Communist Revolution on Nov. 4 13 comments October 5, 2017 Current Events Featured Posts Facebook1,068 Twitter Google+ Pinterest5 Tumblr StumbleUpon Reddit Print Email Share There could be more trouble than we ever imagined headed our way on November 4th when a bunch of folks who aren’t happy about Trump and Pence attempt to overthrow the government in a Communist revolution. Groups like Antifa, Resist Fascism, and the Revolutionary Communist Party have been meeting for months to openly plan sedition and organize what they promise will be massive protests all over the country....

The Leftwing extremist group called 'The Southern Poverty Law Center' of Montgomery, Alabama has with one stroke of the pen smeared conservatives and Patriots in its new, infamous 'blacklist' it entitles, 'Meet the Patriots.' Among those it includes in the blacklist are some of the most reputable conservative Patriots in America today, such as U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN), federal judge and Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, U.S. Representative Ron Paul (R-TX), Gun Owners of America (GOA) chief Larry Pratt, Fox News personality Glenn Beck, and U.S. Representative Paul Broun (R-GA), among others.

Our nation’s ports are the lifelines of our economy. In 2016, foreign trades through U.S. ports were valued at $1.5 trillion—$475 billion exports and $1.0 trillion imports were moved by vessels. When goods travel through ports, it means they are traveling via ship. NOS is in the business of making sure that mariners—and the goods they are transporting—make it to their destinations safely and quickly. Just as airplane pilots need to know current weather and ground conditions, ship captains need to know exactly what's going on in the water and in the air. NOS monitoring systems supply mariners with the...

If your answer is, “you can’t be serious,” you’re not fully in tune with the contemporary landscape. On the other hand, your common sense quotient is high. The NFL scouting combine is basically an audition by more than 300 of the best collegiate football players who are eligible for the NFL draft. They come to Indianapolis each year to undergo on-field workouts, medical testing, interviews, and psychological testing.

Politico reports today that a leaked draft of the GOPâ€™s Obamacare replacement plan shows the House is not fiddling around the edges but moving toward full repeal and replacement of the law. The legislation would take down the foundation of Obamacare, including the unpopular individual mandate, subsidies based on peopleÂ’s income, and all of the lawÂ’s taxes. It would significantly roll back Medicaid spending and give states money to create high-risk pools for some people with pre-existing conditions. Some elements would be effective right away; others not until 2020. The replacement plan would have no individual mandate. Instead, there...

In 1838, a 28-year-old Abraham Lincoln declared that the greatest threat facing America comes not from a foreign invader: If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

With Congress lined up for a battle over whether women should be required to register for the draft, there’s one group that is solidly against the idea, a new poll suggests: women themselves. Women are much less likely than men to say women should be required to register for Selective Service when they turn 18, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by The Economist/YouGov. Thirty-nine percent of women supported registration for women, compared to 61 percent of men.